Opposition demands triple talaq bill be referred to joint select committee

As soon as the House met at 2 p.m. after an adjournment to take up the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said that it be referred to a joint select committee of the two Houses for greater scrutiny.

He said several provisions of the bill were "unconstitutional".

AIADMK leader P Venugopal, TMC's Sudip Bandhopadhyay, AIMIM's Assaduddin Owaisi and Supriya Sule (NCP) also made similar demands.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said a similar bill was discussed and passed by the Lok Sabha. Therefore, members can flag issues during the debate.

She said all of a sudden a demand cannot be made to send it to a committee.

Moving his statutory resolution opposing an ordinance issued earlier (which the bill seeks to replace), N K Premchandran (Revolutionary Socialist Party) said the bill is bad in law as it seeks to criminalise a "civil wrong" and hence it should be referred to a select committee.

Four hours have been allocated to discuss the bill.